Ruffling device for sewing-machines.



A. RONTKE.

RUFFLING'DEVICE FOR SEWING MACHSNES.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT- 3| 1913.

Patented Oct. 31, 1916.

2 SHEETSSHEET l.

Ill/VE/V TOR A TTOR/YEY mr NflRRls PETERS co.. mmmurno WASHINGTON. n, c.

A. RUNTKE.

RUFFLING DEVICE FOR SEWING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 3. 1913.

Patented Oct. 31, 1916.

2 SHE'ETSSHEET 2.

,, Z2 4 2a 15 4%? j m 6215a Tiffani/re.

" run as it b.

ALBERT RONTKE, OF BRIDGE PORT, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE SINGER MANU- FACTURING COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

RUFFLING DEVICE FOR SEWING-MACHINES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 31, 1918.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBERT RoN'rKn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ruffling Devices for Sewing-Machines, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to improvements in ruflling devices for sewing machines, and has for its object to provide conveniently manipulated and controlled means applicable for use in connection with sewing machine attachments for effecting unlike operations.

In the present construction, the ruffling or crimping of the fabric is effected in a plane more nearly corresponding to that in which the needle-bar is moved to form stitches than the plane in which the fabric is fed to the action of the needle, and the crimping plate is preferably arranged so as to discontinue the effective action of the ruffiing elements before the fabric is engaged by the stitch-forming and feeding mechanism, thus providing convenient means for rufiiing a fabric strip and presenting it to the action of the stitch-forming and clothfeeding mechanism coincident with the cord ing, hemming or binding of the fabric to which the ruffling strip is being sewed.

The present ruffling mechanism is especially designed for use in connection with the manufacture of corsets, and is herein shown as applied for stitching on a finishing or trimming stripusually laceduring the operation of binding, said mechanism being under the control of the operator for presenting the trimming strip to the action of the needle either ruffled or unruffied, dependent upon the character of the finish desired.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a view in front end elevation of a sewing machine equipped with the present invention, Fig. 2 a view in front side elevation, partially in section, of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 a plan view of the front end portion of the sewing machine bed-plate and certain parts mounted on and above said bed-plate to be referred to hereinafter, Fig. 4 a view in section on the line Z b, Fig. 3, Fig. 5 a plan view of the throat-plate and binder-head, and Fig. 6 a view of a portion of a corset illustrating the application of the binding and trimming strip as effected by the improved construction.

As the invention is shown as applied to a Singer 108w class machine, the same as is represented by U. S. Patent to Albert Rontke, No. 989,538, dated April 11, 1911, only such reference will be made to the elements comprising the stitch-forming and cloth-feeding mechanism as is deemed essential for a proper understanding of its application.

Referring to the drawings, 1 represents the sewing machine bed-plate upon which is mounted the bracket arm comprising the standard 2 and arm bracket 3, 4 the upper or needle-bar-actuating shaft suitably journaled within the bracket arm and connected with the lower or hook-driving shaft 5 by an endless belt 6 adapted to engage pulleys 7 and 8 on the respective shafts, and as said pulleys are of the ratio of two to one, the hook-driving shaft is given two revolutions to one revolution of the needle-bar-actuating shaft, 9 and 10 suitable lugs depending from said bed-plate in which the shaft 5 is journaled, 11 the loop-taker carried by the shaft 5, 12 the bobbin, 15 the bobbin-case and 16 the hand or band wheel.

The forward end of the shaft 4 is provided with a flange 17 in which is secured, by screw 18, one member 19 of a crank 20, the opposite member 21 of said crank being journaled in a bearing 22 formed in the presser-lifting lever link 23 which, in turn, is pivotally attached to the upper end 24 of a bell-crank Presser-lifting lever 25. The lever 25 is fulcrumed upon a stud 26 forming a part of a 1:)resser-bar-lifting collar 27 adjustably secured by one form of commonly-employed pinch joint (not shown) upon a cloth-presser bar 28, said lever being restrained against movement lengthwise of the stud 26 by a screw 29. The opposite end of the lever 25 is pivotally connected with a step feeding foot link 30 whose lower end is pivotally mounted upon a stud 31 forming a part of a step feeding foot collar 32 which, in turn, is secured by a pinch screw 33 upon a step feeding foot carrying bar 34 mounted in suitable bearings in lugs 35 and 36 formed integral with the oscillating feed-actuating frame 37. The step feeding foot 38 is formed integral with a collar 39 secured by a pinch screw 40 to the bar 34. The parts 17 to 40, inclusive, comprise one form of commonlyemployed upper four-motion feeding mechanism.

41 represents the needle-bar provided with a needle 42 and mounted'to move vertically in suitable bearings formed in the lugs 35 and 36, and 43 the cloth-presser secured by screw 44 to the lower end of the resser-bar 28 and resiliently held in its depressed position by a spring 45. 46 represents a feedeccentric strap encircling a feed-eccentric 47- carried by theshaft 4, 48 an oscillating frame driving pin whose lower end is secured in the frame 37, its upper end passing through a suitable opening formed in the eccentric-strap 46. The frame 37 is mounted to oscillate upon oppositely-arranged pintle bearings comprising the fulcrum stud 49 and pivot pin 50, and 51 is a frame extension (shown in dotted lines only, Fig. 2) provided at its free end with a raised portion 52 having an opening 53 for the passage of the needle, it being understood that the frame and parts rigidly secured thereto are movable in opposite directions in a given plane only, that the elements 51, 42 and 38 cooperate to effect the feeding of the fabric, and that the feed movements occur during the time that the needle is in the material. As machines of the type herein referred to are well understood by. those skilled in the art of sewing by machinery, detail reference thereto is deemed unnecessary.

54 represents a strip-guide bracket secured at one end by a pinch screw55 to a bushing 56 depending from the bearing lug 57 forming a part of the bracket arm, its opposite end being provided with oppositely-arranged lugs 58 and 59 between which is mounted an oscillating bracket 60 in which is secured, by pinch screw 61, a stripguiding arm 62 provided with a crimping plate 63 which has secured to it an adjusting plate 64, and upon the arm 62 is mounted and adjustably secured by screw 65 an inner edgeguide 66 in which is secured a strip-guiding rod 67 whose opposite end passes through a suitable opening formed in an outer edge-guide 68 adjustably secured by screw 69 on the arm 62.

In an opening in the bracket 60 is seated one end of a spring 70 whose opposite end contacts with the wall 71 of the bracket 54, said spring normally acting to hold the crimping plate 63 in its ineffective position, as illustrated more clearly in Fig. 1, the screw 72 threaded into the wall 71 acting to limit the rocking movements of the bracket 60 in the direction controlled by said spring, and the screw'73, when adjusted gulanly-arranged serrated ruflii'ng surface,

respectively, of the cloth-presser, and 76 the serrated feeding surface (shown in dotted lines only) and 77 the vertically-arranged serrated ruiiiing surface, respectively, of the step feeding foot.

In the operation of the machine, the body fabric, as 78, is placed beneath the serrated surfaces 74 and 76 in a manner common to sewing machines generally, the trimming strip, as 79, is passed from the supply between the strip-guiding arms 62 and 67, with the edge 80 of the trimming strip in guiding relationship with the guide 66 and the edge 81 in guiding relationship with the edgeguide 68, then between the serrated surfaces and 77 and the crimping plate 63, and between the fabric 78 and serrated surfaces 74 and 76, when the machine is put into operation and the strip 79 and fabric 78 united in a well-known manner; but when,

Supposing the crimping plate to have been moved into position to be acted on by the serrated surfaces 75 and 77, and the operative parts of the machine in the positions illustrated in the figures (see particularly Fig. 1), with the cloth-presser down upon the fabric and the feeding foot raised and advanced ready to descend in contact with the trimming strip and ruflie it as it is passed from the supply over the crimping plate, it will be seen that the serrated surface 77 is slightly in advance of the like serrated surface 75, and that during the ruflling action of the former surface the latter surface is ineffective with respect to said crimping plate; but when the feeding foot is actuated to feed the fabric the surface 75 in its descent acts in like manner as the surface 77 to rufiie said trimming strip, with the result that the surfaces 75 and 77 act alternately to effect the ruffiing operation. It will be readily understood that the surface 77 could be employed to effect the rufliing operation independently of the surface 75, but in combining the two as in the present construction the strip can be given a greater amount of fullness, which may be varied by the degree of pressure given the adjusting plate 64.

It is believed that the present construction is the first to effect the rufliing of a fabric outside the field of action of the cloth-pressing surface of the cloth-presser, and in a plane slightly oblique to that in which the needle-bar is actuated to form stitches.

82 represents a binder-head of usual construction suitably secured upon the sewing machine slide plate 83, said binder-head acting to guide the binding 84: beneath the trimming strip 79 as the latter and the binding are being stitched to the body fabric, said binder-head being included in the present construction to demonstrate more clearly the use of the present rufiiing mechanism in combination with attachments employed for finishing the edge of fabrics-coincident with the ruiiling and stitching on of a trimming strip, such combined operation being made practical by locating the coacting rutfling elements outside the field of action of the cloth-pressing surface of the cloth-presser, as previouslv pointed out.

W hat I claim is 1. In a sewing machine, in combination, a cloth-feeding mechanism including a step feeding foot, a stitch-forming mechanism and a manually controlled crimping plate, said step feeding foot adapted to cooperate with said crimping plate to form a ruflie and thereafter present it to the stitch-forming mechanism.

2. A ruffling device for sewing machines comprising a cloth-presser provided with an angularly-arranged serrated surface, means for giving to said clotlrpresser vertical movements, a rufiiing plate, an upper cloth-feeding member provided with a vertically-arranged serrated surface, and means for actuating said cloth-feeding member and clothpresser, said serrated surfaces coacting with said ruffling plate to gather the fabric as it is fed to the action of the needle.

3. A rufiling device for sewing machines comprising a feed-actuating'frame, a clothpresser provided with a serrated rufliing surface and carried by a cloth-presser bar mounted to move vertically in the bracket arm of the sewing machine, a step feeding foot provided with a serrated ruffling surface and carried by a step feeding foot bar mounted in said feed-actuating frame, and a bracket carried by said bracket arm and provided with a rufliing plate movable at the will of the operator into effective relationship with said serrated ruffling surfaces.

4. A rufliing device for sewing machines comprising a feed-actuating frame, a cloth presser provided with a serrated rufliing surface and carried by a cloth-presser bar mounted to move vertically in the bracket arm of the sewing machine, a step feeding foot provided with a serrated rufiling surface and carried by a step feeding foot bar mounted in said'feed-actuating frame, and a bracketcarried by said bracket arm and provided with a yieldingly mounted ruflling plate movable at the will of the operator into effective relationship with said serrated ruffling surfaces.

5. A rufliing device for sewing machines comprising a feed-actuating frame, a clothpresser provided with a serrated rufiling surface and carried by a cloth-presser bar mounted to move vertically in the bracket arm of the sewing machine, a step feeding foot provided with a serrated rufliing sur face and carried by a step feeding foot bar mounted in said feed-actuating frame, and a bracket carried by said bracket arm and pro vided with edge-guides and a rufiling plate, the latter being movable at the will of the operator into effective relationship with said serrated rufliing surfaces.

6. A rufiling device for sewing machines comprising a feed-actuating frame, a clothpresser provided with a serrated ruff-ling surface and carried by a cloth-presser bar mounted to move vertically in the bracket arm of the sewing machine, a step feeding foot provided with a serrated ruffiing surface and carried by a step feeding foot bar mounted in said feed-actuating frame, and a bracket carried by said bracket arm provided with edge-guides, strip-guides and a ruflling plate, the latter being movable at the will of the operator into effective relationship with said serrated rufiiing surfaces.

7. A rufliing device for sewing machines comprising a feed-actuating frame, a clothpresser provided with a serrated ruffling surface and carried by a cloth-presser bar mounted to move vertically in the bracket arm of the sewing machine, a step feeding foot provided with a serrated rufiiing surface and carried by a step feeding foot bar mounted in said feed-actuating frame, and a bracket carried by said bracket arm provided with a ruffiing plate and adjustably secured edge and strip guides, said ruffiing plate being movable at the will of the operator into effective relationship with said serrated ruflling surfaces.

In testimony whereof. I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ALBERT RON TKE.

Witnesses:

ABBIE M. DoNIHEE, CHARLES E. HOLDEN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patenta,

Washington, D. C. 

